The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) has told Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe that the complaint made against him is now closed and no further action will be taken.
Sipo stated that Mr Donohoe’s amendment to his election returns is consistent with the commission’s approach to compliance and that the matter was not of sufficient gravity to warrant an investigation.
“I am grateful to the commission for its work, I regret that this issue occurred and I welcome that it has now been definitively dealt with. I also want to thank the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Minister [Eamon] Ryan and all of my colleagues in Government for their support,” Mr Donohoe said.
The Sipo letter, seen by The Irish Times, and dated the May 16th, says that the matter was discussed at a meeting on May 8th “in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 1997 and the Ethics Acts (Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 and the Standards in Public Office Act 2001)”.
The commission decided that the complaint “was not of sufficient gravity to warrant investigation”.
It also considered responses provided by Mr Donohoe and the Minister’s election agent and the subsequent amended election returns and the commission “determined that it was not in the public interest for the commission to further exercise its powers” under section 4(4) of the electoral act, or to refer the matter to the DPP.
Mr Donohoe failed to declare that businessman Michael Stone had paid thousands of euros towards the display of his campaign posters in his constituency in his last two general election campaigns in 2016 and 2020.
The Minister was forced to apologise in January, gave two Dáil statements, and amended his election returns.
Mr Stone, chief executive of the engineering firm the Designer Group, resigned as a board member of the Land Development Agency and as chair of the North East Inner City (NEIC) taskforce over the controversy.
